Tinubu: I’ll succeed with Akpabio, Abbas on my side

President Bola Tinubu says he will succeed as the leader of Africa’s most populous nation with the current presiding officers of the national assembly on his side.

Tinubu spoke in Abuja on Thursday at a colloquium to mark the 61st birthday of Senate President Godswill Akpabio.

The president said the challenges facing Nigeria would be jointly assessed by the executive and legislature to produce implementable solutions for the good of the country.

“Having Senate President Akpabio, and the speaker of the house of representatives, Right Honourable Abbas, on my side is enough for me to succeed, and we will succeed,” Tinubu said.

“I believe in the person of Sen. Godswill Akpabio. He is truly in God’s will for his life. I was governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007, and he was a commissioner.

“As a commissioner, he was extremely inquisitive about what was going on in Lagos. I didn’t know then that he wanted to be a governor.

“As governor, he transformed Akwa Ibom tremendously.”

On his part, Akpabio commended Tinubu for his visionary leadership.

“You are the first president who openly stepped out and said you believed that someone like me would make a difference as senate president,” he said.

“It is not that the National Assembly is an appendage of the executive. President Tinubu is the first to get it right.

“Mr. President, there is no country that you have been to that investors did not rush to meet with you.”

Also speaking, Abbas said Tinubu has laid out a good “economic vision” away from “impulsive programmes” of the past.